Josh Kesselman, HBI Innovations Founder, Featured in Wall Street Journal Piece on High Times Purchase
"The old High Times, the monetization one, had to be completely destroyed down to the ashes. That way of thinking had to go away," Kesselman said.
Former High Times co-owner Matt Stang with Josh Kesselman, who paid $3.5 million for the High Times intellectual property rights. PHOTO: BIG FREEZY
Josh Kesselman, who founded RAW® rolling papers, paid $3.5 million for the High Times intellectual property rights. Kesselman and Stang also intend to roll out licensing deals to create High Times products, including rolling papers through RAW, and create community by connecting readers with cannabis social media influencers.
The Wall Street Journal wrote, "Kesselman is candid about the magazine's prospects in an era of fractured media attention: He expects the magazine to lose money initially. He just hopes to pick up enough business with die-hard marijuana enthusiasts to eventually break even, he said."
The article also reported that Kesselman, "has already pumped an additional $1.85 million into jump-starting the magazine, covering costs including trademark fees and digitizing old content."
"I know typically in business people have this whole plan," Kesselman said. "But the funny part, Matt and I always tell people, is we have no plan. The most important thing to us was to actually save High Times."
The Wall Street Journal article states, "Trans-High Corp., or THC, the magazine's publisher since its 1974 founding, sold its assets to private-equity firm Oreva Capital in 2017. The new parent company, Hightimes Holding, entered into receivership in April 2024 and the website hasn't been updated in months. Its last print edition came out in September."
"Kesselman, 54, was introduced to weed culture in High Times as a teen, when marijuana was illegal in the U.S., stashing a copy wrapped in brown paper away from his parents."
The decision to bring back High Times' print issue by Kesselman and Stang is in line with a recent trend of publications expanding or reviving their print operations, including the Atlantic, the Onion and the Tablet. Read the full article here.
Source: Grasslands
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